Publicans want 15% levy on off licence sales....

Links234 · 30-07-2013 01:37PM

ScienceNerd wrote: »

Against the Grain will give you a free pint of their own beer if you donate a game, clever little idea. I highly approve of board games in pubs, great way to socialise while drinking.

Pubs like that are what's doing well these days, no oppressively blaring music so you can actually talk to people and enjoy their company, socialize etc, a great selection of different beers and good food. I normally drink in the Salt House in Galway, they've got a fantastic selection and even have guest stuff on cask. more pubs who break away from Diageo's rubbish will do well.

30-07-2013 01:39PM

kylith wrote: »

Sport. I have little interest in GAA (unless its my home county) and less in football. I am not going to sit in a pub that has the Premiership showing on multiple tellies regardless of how nice the pub is. If you're going to show sport on one telly put a subtitled film on another. It's especially annoying because it seems that >90% of pubs show sport so there isn't really anywhere to get away from it.

The vast majority do want sport on in pubs though and a lot like myself often might be following two things at the same time like golf and gaa last weekend. People would complain in two seconds if a tv was taken up with a movie that could be showing sport.

kylith · 30-07-2013 01:40PM

ScienceNerd wrote: »

Against the Grain will give you a free pint of their own beer if you donate a game, clever little idea. I highly approve of board games in pubs, great way to socialise while drinking.

cool, I didn't know that. There's a game's day on there once a month too.

Having games is a great idea for pubs. Say you go for a drink with a friend; each of you orders a beer, you drink your beers, then you leave. If there were games everywhere you might pick one up and start playing, and if you run out of beer you're hardly likely to leave and go somewhere else if you're in the middle of a game of chess, so you're more likely to get another beer while you finish your game.

Galwayguy35 · 30-07-2013 01:42PM

flutered wrote: »

actuall if the goverment got rid of below cost selling of booze by the muntiples it would make a massive difference to the exchequer, but it is a nettle they do not want to grasp.

I'm more concerned about the difference it would make to me rather than the exchequer, I like the fact that I get good value on alcohol when I buy it in the supermarket.

As for the publicans they can fook off with their bright ideas, people have got sick of them and their high prices.

OldNotWIse · 30-07-2013 01:43PM

kylith wrote: »

cool, I didn't know that. There's a game's day on there once a month too.

Having games is a great idea for pubs. Say you go for a drink with a friend; each of you orders a beer, you drink your beers, then you leave. If there were games everywhere you might pick one up and start playing, and if you run out of beer you're hardly likely to leave and go somewhere else if you're in the middle of a game of chess, so you're more likely to get another beer while you finish your game.

Yup, Cassidys do this too, and you can get a pizza and pint for a tenner too. Good if there are two of you sharing (the pizza not the pint lol)

lucylu · 30-07-2013 01:43PM

so tell us VFI what sports do Peach Schnapps, Sambuca, Tequila or Captain Morgan Sponsor? none... so shut up VFI and get your Members to reduce their own prices...

30-07-2013 01:46PM

P_1 wrote: »

surely smaller kegs of the non mainstream stuff would be the way to go in that case.

Like many others I've started avoiding pubs because I'm sick to the back teeth of the stupid loud music that they insist on playing

Again no more than sport the vast majority who go to pubs at night want loud music. Pubs don't play loud music during the day they do it at night as it's what people want.

When I go to a pub at night the majority of the time I want the music loud, it creates the atmosphere. There are plenty of pubs that don't play much music at all also if that's what you want.

Beefy78 · 30-07-2013 01:46PM

I don't think there's anything wrong with a pint of Heineken. There's a lot of beer snobbery around but a lot of people drink that stuff because - shock horror - they like it. The problem is a lack of variety. Contrast it with the UK where all the pubs will sell mass-produced big name beers but not necessarily the same mass-produced big name beers as the pub next door and where there will usually be a couple of local or speciality beers on tap as well. It massively cuts down on the much-lauded appeal of the individuality of Irish pubs when they all sell exactly the same beers.

The €2.50 charge for a tiny bottle of coke/lemonade/tonic is the biggest piss-take that Irish pubs get involved in. My sister has been running bars in the UK for years and she says how the margin that pubs there make on the soda-stream-style soft drinks is huge so there's no excuse for not offering that as a splash.

hatrickpatrick · 30-07-2013 01:46PM

Jesus Christ. This is turning into an all out assault on our freedom from all angles. F*ck this nanny state government.

kylith · 30-07-2013 01:48PM

Stephen Fast Missile wrote: »

The vast majority do want sport on in pubs though and a lot like myself often might be following two things at the same time like golf and gaa last weekend. People would complain in two seconds if a tv was taken up with a movie.

Would they, or would more people than you'd think be delighted? There are way too many pubs all showing the same match and all showing it on multiple screens, it's really off-putting for non-sporty people because you'd be stuck watching or listening to it, or putting up with the feckers yelling at the screen and cheering at goals. Maybe showing different sports would be something, but I still wouldn't go there, and I'd say that there are many people, male and female, would appreciate somewhere they could get away from it completely.

P_1 · 30-07-2013 01:48PM

Stephen Fast Missile wrote: »

Again no more than sport the vast majority who go to pubs at night want loud music. Pubs don't play loud music during the day they do it at night as it's what people want.

When I go to a pub at night the majority of the time I want the music loud, it creates the atmosphere. There are plenty of pubs that don't play much music at all also if that's what you want.

There's a difference between having music loud enough to create an atmosphere and having music so loud that you can't have a conversation and are stuck drinking in silence. Sadly most publicans don't seem to be able to grasp that difference

Beefy78 · 30-07-2013 01:50PM

kylith wrote: »

Would they, or would more people than you'd think be delighted? There are way too many pubs all showing the same match and all showing it on multiple screens, it's really off-putting for non-sporty people because you'd be stuck watching or listening to it, or putting up with the feckers yelling at the screen and cheering at goals. Maybe showing different sports would be something, but I still wouldn't go there, and I'd say that there are many people, male and female, would appreciate somewhere they could get away from it completely.

Sports packages cost pubs an absolute fortune. They pay it because the pubs who don't show sport struggle to make money even more than the pubs who do show sport.

Grayson · 30-07-2013 01:53PM

The Narrator wrote: »

Wish they would levy the government to lower the tax rate on pints etc.

Then they could lower the price again and people would actually feel like they aren't being ripped off.

I'm not going to regularly pay €5 for a pint, it's absolute madness.

Except if the government lowered the taxes on drink, the publicans would increase their prices to match.

Shure aren't punters already willing to pay €5 for a pint.

Galwayguy35 · 30-07-2013 01:53PM

One time you would go in to a pub and even in some nightclubs and they would have a bottle of 7 up or coca cola on the counter that you could use to put in your drink, now if you want a mixer you have to nearly pay double the price for the mineral bottle as well.

The Backwards Man · 30-07-2013 01:58PM

It's quite funny, there's so many 'experts' here commenting on how pubs should be run. Instead of being boards complaining, why aren't you all running successful establishments and making a fortune for yourselves, seeing as you know far more than those that are in the trade?

Grayson · 30-07-2013 01:59PM

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

One time you would go in to a pub and even in some nightclubs and they would have a bottle of 7 up or coca cola on the counter that you could use to put in your drink, now if you want a mixer you have to nearly pay double the price for the mineral bottle as well.

Or €1.50 for the splash from the bottle.

keithclancy · 30-07-2013 02:00PM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

It's quite funny, there's so many 'experts' here commenting on how pubs should be run. Instead of being boards complaining, why aren't you all running successful establishments and making a fortune for yourselves, seeing as you know far more than those that are in the trade?

Yes of course .. they should just shut up, not discuss it and just endure the experience.

/sarcasm

kylith · 30-07-2013 02:07PM

keithclancy wrote: »

Yes of course .. they should just shut up, not discuss it and just endure the experience.

/sarcasm

Yeah, no-one should be allowed to have an opinion on anything, not even how they like to spend their leisure time, unless they're willing to spend hundreds of thousands of euro setting up in the industry themselves.

Banjo String · 30-07-2013 02:08PM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

It's quite funny, there's so many 'experts' here commenting on how pubs should be run. Instead of being boards complaining, why aren't you all running successful establishments and making a fortune for yourselves, seeing as you know far more than those that are in the trade?

Does the Backwards Man run a backwards bar by any chance?

The vfi should take your advice though. They're the experts in the trade. That trade idea dying though due to lack of expertise.

Yakult · 30-07-2013 02:12PM

I never go out, but when I do its normally to play a gig and I get free drink. Can't complain.
Other than that it's a waste of money, the prices some places charge for terrible pints is a joke. Cant justify it.

Knasher · 30-07-2013 02:15PM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

It's quite funny, there's so many 'experts' here commenting on how pubs should be run. Instead of being boards complaining, why aren't you all running successful establishments and making a fortune for yourselves, seeing as you know far more than those that are in the trade?

Actually I think one of the hardest things about being in the service industry is how unwilling, the Irish people generally, are to complain about poor service. Instead they just vote with their feet, I know I'm guilty of this too. So instead of realising they have a problem early and maybe fixing it, they just see their business dry up over time as people go elsewhere. People should be encouraged to complain rather than being told to "shut up, if your so smart why aren't you running your own business".

Nemeses · 30-07-2013 02:17PM

Be a bit pointless running a bar when it costs quite a bit to get a license to do so... and the fact that the country is oversaturated in pubs..

The Backwards Man · 30-07-2013 02:21PM

SamHall wrote: »

Does the Backwards Man run a backwards bar by any chance?

The vfi should take your advice though. They're the experts in the trade. That trade idea dying though due to lack of expertise.

Not any more, when I was young and foolish.:)

Yeah, the trade is dying. Nothing to do with lack of expertise, supermarkets, or the variety of beer on tap. It's dying due to social and technological changes, the VFI are trying to flog a dead horse.

LittleBook · 30-07-2013 02:45PM

Grayson wrote: »

It's a proposal that might have generated jobs and was popular with the public.

The vintners assocation killed it. I remember seeing a programme at the time that stated that 1/3 of fianna fail back benchers were publicans. That's why the bill was killed

And here's how.

Some TL/DR notes:

- the proposals of the Commission on Liquor Licencing being roundly rejected by a lobby group and the government supporting the lobby group rather than the task force they set up themselves. From the chairman: "I would hope that sectoral interest would not overrule the public interest. On this occasion, I think it has".

- a minister who "met with our local vintners and a number of issues were raised which I feel we will have to discuss in due course. Regarding a cafe bar, there is absolutely no support for it here locally" [Donegal]

- FF minister in charge of alcohol policy at that time was a publican

- chairman of a group drawing up a submission for Michael McDowell on the licensing laws was a publican

- other critics of the bill being publicans and a senator who was the former chairman of the Dublin Licensed Vintners

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Yeah, the trade is dying. Nothing to do with lack of expertise, supermarkets, or the variety of beer on tap. It's dying due to social and technological changes, the VFI are trying to flog a dead horse.

Hopefully the "dead horse" they're flogging is their dwindling influence in goverment. But it's a little more than that ... they're trying to punish a different sector for the fact that their own one is failing ... like a hotel lobby group insisting that B&B owners charge their customers a levy.

adocholiday · 30-07-2013 02:52PM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Yeah, the trade is dying. Nothing to do with lack of expertise, supermarkets, or the variety of beer on tap. It's dying due to social and technological changes, the VFI are trying to flog a dead horse.

I disagree with that. I love the pub and going out, as do most of my friends; but we don't go out often anymore for a myriad of reasons, most of which have been discussed.

The primary reason is the cost, its simply too expensive to go to the pub for the night now. Say if I go out with my girlfriend in Dublin for the night starting around 9 and finish round 3. A round for the 2 of us generally costs somewhere between €10-€13, depending on what pub we're in. Now say in those 6 hours we have 8 drinks - fairly standard, just over 1 drink per hour, that costs between €80-€100. Then take maybe admission into a late bar into account, that's another €10 or €20, and a taxi home is another €15. That's a possible €140 for two people for one night out. At that rate, 3 or 4 nights out would cover the cost of the holiday to Spain I just returned from.

Now I know that's Dublin where you pay more anyway, but it's still not far off the mark. Knock 20 or 30 quid off that, its still a substantial amount of money. If you were doing that every Saturday night that's somewhere between 500-600 per month.

If the publicans reduce their prices they are far more likely to attract people back. Surely its better to have 40 people paying €3.50 for their pints, than 10 people paying €5. I know its not that simple either with taxes etc but I'm just making a point. If the VFI were to stop attacking everything and actually look at ways to reduce their prices instead, I would almost guarantee that we would see numbers increasing in the pubs again

hatrickpatrick · 30-07-2013 02:54PM

Question: Why is it that Dublin pubs are so much more expensive than country ones? I mean surely pubs in a city like Dublin are getting more traffic than pubs out in the middle of the country, so how can it possibly make any sense that the Dublin sometimes charges over €1.50 more for a pint?
Seriously we're talking about the difference between a €3.50 pint in some places and a €5.20 one in Dublin. What's up with that?

The J Stands for Jay · 30-07-2013 02:56PM

anncoates wrote: »

The goverment really need to aggressively put the boot into the VFI and their monopolistic bleating and attempts at market cornering but it's never goimng to happen when they have the ear of a lot of politicians,.

When a lot of them ARE politicians.

adocholiday · 30-07-2013 02:57PM

Oh and just my 2c on the café-bar proposal. I'm glad it died because those establishments are soul sucking. Go to Rome or Valencia for example where there are loads of them. There's no atmosphere and no mingling because of the way they are. Too sterile or something. Last thing I would ever want to see is these kind of places replacing the Irish pub.

Specialun · 30-07-2013 03:02PM

I wonder how is the Designated driver scheme thy had last yr going?

Specialun · 30-07-2013 03:08PM

I just got a flashback from sat Night

I went from the Old Oak to Oliver Plunkett sat night in Cork City (100 yards) and paid 1.40 of a difference in the same round.How can the justify that

Publicans want 15% levy on off licence sales....

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